


Between us

by Igraine_smiley



Series: Quarantine season 2020 [11]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Latin Hetalia - Fandom
Genre: Feelings, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Miscommunication, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27372241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Igraine_smiley/pseuds/Igraine_smiley
Summary: "You had something with Arthur," Luciano muttered."Oh, what a revelation!" Martín exclaimed "Everyone had something with Arthur"'"I didn't""Well, your father surely did" Martín took a sip of his tea.orLuciano helped Martín declutter his attic and had a realization.
Relationships: Argentina/Brazil (Hetalia)
Series: Quarantine season 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666678
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Between us

Luciano didn't know why he was in Martín's attic on a perfectly sunny and warm Sunday. They could have gone to the park but the blond decided he wanted to declutter that abandoned part of his home. Saying it was abandoned it was an understatement. The attic looked like it was part of a horror movie, it was dark, dusty and was filled with boxes and old objects that Martín didn’t bother to throw out or repurpose. That was the kind of place where spirits lurked around. In some way, it was filled with ghosts, ghosts of Martín's past. Luciano could recognise some weapons from the old days and a couple of hats he had seen Martín wearing a hundred years ago. 

“You have so much shit in here!” Luciano exclaimed as he tiptoed around different antiques that made up an unorganized maze in the limited space.

“Oh, I'm sorry Mr Tidy” Martín rolled his eyes. He had his hair tied in a small ponytail and covered with a red scarf because of course, he wouldn’t get his golden strands dirty. 

“At least I'm not some kind of hoarder” he picked up an old-looking sword and flung it around “You could make a museum very happy with this stuff”

“That's the idea” Martín cut open a cardboard box sending dust flying everywhere “Are you gonna help or are you going to keep on bitching?”

“Oh, shut it!” Luciano threw a dusty velvet cushion at Martín. 

“Ew!!!” he screamed, “That has been here since I’ve moved in!” Martín groaned and moved frantically to shake off the particles that flew out the cushion “Don’t throw things around we are going to catch the plague or something”

“You are a dirty boy, Martín,” Luciano laughed at his partner's disgusted face. 

“I would like to see your attic!” 

“Kinky. I bet you are imagining a sex dungeon” Luciano replied and Martín threw the velvety cushion back at him. Luciano winced when he felt the crusty fabric hit him straight in the face. Now they were both covered in a thin layer of grey dust. Maybe they could take a shower together after this fiasco of a Sunday evening. No one could say Luciano didn't try to look for silver linings.

As expected the bickered their way through the task. Martín tried in vain to keep his chill when a spider the size of a small mouse crawled from behind a bronze lamp. Luciano laughed until his stomach hurt as Martín claimed on a big chest swearing his heart out. Martín, the fucking caveman, wanted to kill the poot spider. He actually wanted him to kill the spider but Luciano refused so instead they spent fifteen minutes trying to catch it. Luciano did, Martín kept swearing and screaming from his place on top of the chest. After the arachnid incident, they continued their task and stopped only to show each other cool things and joke about old pictures they kept finding. 

Luciano moved some boxes around hoping no insects were creeping behind it when he found a battered green helmet. He took it with a shaking hand because he recognized it immediately. It was covered in bullet holes, gashes and bad memories. It had been an awful time for Martín… for all of them actually.

“Bring it here,” Martín said gently taking him out of the trance “I'm taking it to a museum”

Martin took the helmet and carefully placed it next to a pile of things they deemed worthy of donating to different museums. 

“Oh! Gosh!” Luciano exclaimed trying to get rid of the gloomy mood that had taken over. He found something nice inside of a wooden box. It was a ship model, a replica of an Argentine vessel. It was beautifully crafted with small argentine flags and shiny gold accents. Luciano picked it up with care “it's cool! Look at the details!” 

“You can keep it if you like it,” Martín said with a faint smile. 

“Really?” Luciano kept admiring the ship. He liked boats and sea-related things.

“Yes” he replied and turned to look at what looked like a framed covered with a white sheet “Now help me move this painting” 

“Geez, Martín this is heavy, is it one of your old-style nudes or what?” Luciano joked as he lifted the other end of the painting.

“You wish, you pervert”

His boss didn’t want him to put the ship on display. It was clearly an Argentine ship, everyone who set foot on his office could see that. It was clear by the colours, light blue and white of the flags and shields adorning the vessel. It was guaranteed to raise some eyebrows but gave Luciano a fuzzy feeling in his heart every time he looked at it. He fucking loved that thing. He had had the ship in his office for a few years so he didn't think much about it when he had Arthur over for a brief meeting. The British kept looking at the shelves behind him.

"You like it?" Luciano asked proudly when he realized his guest was looking at the ship.

"It's... I've made it myself" Arthur looked confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I've made this ship ages ago" Arthur explained "Well not that much time ago all things considered. Where did you get it?"

"Emm…" Luciano didn't know what to say. He hated bringing Martin up when talking to Arthur.

"Martín gave it to you?" Arthur said as he connected the dots.

"Yes" Luciano nodded, "He dragged me to his house to help him declu... tidy up"

"I see" Arthur smiled "I'm surprised he keep it for so long"

"Do you want it back?" Luciano didn't want to give it back. 

"Of course not! It was gifted to you, isn't it?"

They moved on to the next topic of the meeting and the ship wasn't brought back again. Thank God. Luciano's attention drifted in and off from the conversation. He thought about Martín and Arthur and how closed they once had been. He had proof of that on his shelf but now they hate each other bitterly. Once Arthur left Luciano called Martín in a rage.

"What didn't you tell me!" He yelled as soon as Martín picked up the phone.

"What?I was having a wonderful nap!" Martín was a few tones deeper than usual.

"The ship you gave me!" He exclaimed, "it was a gift from fucking Arthur to you!"

"And?" he was unbelievable.

"He came to my office and saw the thing there"

"And?"

"You made me look stupid" Luciano felt his face heating up.

"Oh, don't blame me for that!" Martín voice was laced with annoyance "You get the same effect without the ship anyways"

"You aren't supposed to give away gifts, you jerk! What's wrong with you?"

"Come on! What got into you? It was two centuries ago" Martín sounded confused "Are you seriously picking a fight about a ship? and not even a real one, a model ship?"

"Why'd you gifted me something Arthur gave to you? That's messed up"

"Because you like it, your eyes went all shiny and shit"

"You hate the guy and gave me" your fucking boyfriend he wanted to shout "something he…"

"Luciano I didn't mean anything with that" Martín said "I don't hate him, I just strongly dislike him and I know he put a lot of work into that ship it meant a lot to me back then... I... You like it so I wanted you to keep it. That's it"

"I thought it was something between us"

"It is"

"No, it isn't" he stated "Next time you give me a gift tell me the story behind it" he hung up the phone before Martín could answer.

Meetings and conferences were the worst. It was a waste of time since once everyone got their asses back home they would do whatever they wanted. Alfred will keep polluting the air as his life depended on it, Ivan would keep being Ivan and Luciano wouldn't get his shit together. There were a lot of things in his mind bothering him but he was fortunate enough to have time to chill on a comfy sofa in his hotel room and try to keep his feelings repressed. That was until Martín walked in with two mugs in hand like he owned the place. He had been in a meeting with Alfred and his boss for hours. Poor unfortunate soul.

"I swear humans get stupider by the hour" he threw himself next to him " is not fair that you get to laze around all evening" 

"I worked all morning" he rolled his eyes and Martín handed him a mug with coffee "Thanks, is that tea?"

"I need to calm down" he took a sip of his drink "I don't have coffee flowing through my bloodstream as you do" 

"How was it?"

"Alfred and his boss will give me an aneurysm one of these days" Martín replied.

"I don't think we can get one and if we do a cup of tea will not stop a stroke"

"It helps"

"No, it doesn't"

"You just have to choose the right blend" Martín rested his head on his shoulder.

"Well, you better get a strong one for tomorrow"

"Don't remind me" Martín kissed his cheek "it's not personal, you know?"

"It is" Luciano sighed.

"No, it's not" Martín arched an eyebrow "I know we aren't human, we are countries but we are also individuals. Martín and Luciano, not necessarily equal Argentina and Brazil or God forbid" he made a pause "our bosses" 

"I'm Brazil, you are Argentina" Luciano's grip tightened around the mug "We always have to follow our bosses orders, sit on our asses as they do stupid shit. Do you think we can ignore that?"

"We have been through a lot of shit together, Lu" Martín turned his body to look at him "We can manage" He moved a curl off Luciano's face "Look, your boss can punch me in the face and I will still love you"

"You are ridiculous," Luciano huffed. 

"I'm not dating your boss" he grimaced "I'm not dating every Brazilian citizen. I'm dating you and have been doing so for decades. Can you tell me what's wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong" Luciano shook his head.

"You have been acting weird for months" 

"You have been acting weird for centuries" Luciano tried to change the subject.

"I'm serious"

"You had something with Arthur," Luciano muttered.

"Oh, what a revelation!" Martín exclaimed "Everyone had something with Arthur"

'"I didn't"

"Well, your father surely did" Martín took a sip of his tea.

"You are such an ass," Luciano said "that's not my point anyway"

"What's your point then? Is this a jealousy thing? About Arthur, really? Do you want me to stop playing Polo?" 

"Martín, you aren't stupid you know what I mean" Luciano frowned and pull away from him. 

"It's not the same, Lu" Martín threw his head back. He groaned and rolled his eyes. 

"You were together and when shit went down you went down with it"

"Are you planning on starting a war or what?" Martín looked him in the eyes and dared to joke.

"I'm serious, Martín!"

"Look, it's different. Shit was always going down between us. My relationship with Arthur was toxic as fuck and it wasn't at all separate with our politics” he made a pause that made Luciano think he was done with the conversation “He used me a lot, I used him a bit, we fucked Spain over, we fought, we laughed, I showered him with boiling water, it was messy and there was always something to gain and something to lose politically speaking. The typical countries shenanigans. When you and I started dating it wasn't because of our bosses, right? So why does it matter now?"

“I don't want to be a lost memory in your attic covered by layers and layers of dust” Luciano admitted. 

“Someone got poetic. I can't promise you forever but I can promise this is something between us. We won't break apart because of something we can't control, ok?” Martín smiled “Unless you get me out of a World Cup then I’ll dump your ass” the shithead sure knew how to make Luciano smile. 

“We have a deal then”

They were kind of hiding from their bosses before the meeting started and no one could blame them since they had at least two hours of pettiness and pointless conversations before them. After their talk, Luciano felt much better but Martín seemed fidgety all morning. He better didn’t try a run for it or Luciano was going to join him without second thoughts. 

“Lu, I have something for you. You don’t have to like it or anything but you got me thinking yesterday” Martín said avoiding his eyes.

“I hope it didn’t hurt that much” Luciano teased him but Martín didn’t bicker back. It was scary. 

“Shut up and take it” he pulled out a small box from his suit pocket and Luciano gasped “don't freak out" God, how could he not freak out at the sight of a motherfucking ring!? It was a simple gold band which made things so much worse.

“Martín!” he shouted. He stared in disbelief at the ring before him, his mouth was opening and closing like he was somewhat kind of fish.

“It’s symbolic. I know, well… I think we can’t actually get married but I love you and… I know it's not my style but...” Martín kept his eyes fixed on the floor and when he looked into Luciano's eyes he stopped in his tracks “Oh, you hate it! Like I said you can say no…” Luciano ignored him and pulled Martín closer into a kiss.

“You are so dense,” Luciano said against Martin’s lips. He looped his arms around Martín’s neck and leaned over until their foreheads were touching.

“Are you crying?” Martín asked as he took his hand and slid the ringer on Luciano's finger. He placed his hand on his chest and squeezed it gently. They kissed again like their bosses weren’t frantically looking for them somewhere in the building. 

“Your mum is crying” Luciano laughed “I will have to buy you a ring then” 

“You don’t have to” 

“Well, you are out of luck because I want to” Luciano took a good look of the golden ring “My boss is so going to have a meltdown” 

“It’s not gay if we aren’t human” he smirked

“Oh, Martín this is absolutly gay” 

“That’s ok with me” he laughed “it’s between us anyways"


End file.
